Just One Last Time
by Luckystreak
Summary: Response to KameoDash's challenge in the H&E forums. Settled in the 662-663 Manga Chapter. Naruto is not going to give up until he sees his beloved Sakura-chan again, waking up just before Sakura was going to heal him.


Time was moving slowly, every minute seem like an hour. His senses were weakening, knowing what was real or not was becoming hard with each passing second. One thing was crystal clear: Kurama was no longer within him.

Naruto twitched painful as he came to a halt. He could feel a soothing presence near him, a presence that he unconsciously yearned for. He could hear a familiar voice in the afar. He wanted to touch that voice, taste it. Embrace that sweet voice of the heavens.

_Why?_

Why couldn't he open his eyes? He wanted to see again that beautiful face, mesmerizing green eyes staring deep into his soul, soft pink hair flowing in the wind.

For a moment he completely froze, the thought of not seeing his beloved Sakura-chan once again nearly made him scream. Naruto felt his own heartbeat stopping.

_No…_

A sad image of Sakura, weeping in his tombstone, came to his weakened mind. Iruka-sensei, Tsunade-baachan, Kakashi-sensei and every one of his friend was standing in front of his grave, everybody wearing black.

**Black, absolute black was the only he could see.**

He hated it, despite that color. He wanted to change that heartbreaking image, he wanted to see everybody happy, laughing _along_ him in Konoha.

Naruto mentally grimaced at the thought of leaving everything behind. He was practically in Deathbed, bounded to die by the hand of Death in any moment, to stop all the hurting and pain once and for all.

Naruto would be damned if he was going to give up now, not after everything he has been through. He had one last thing to do before he could close his eyes once again, this time perhaps, forever.

Naruto regained what little conscience he still had. Slowly, he opened his eyes, searching for what he most desired to see.

Sakura was in the verge of a mental breakdown. She has been through years of medical training with no one else than Tsunade of the Sannin as her teacher. Sakura was confident in her healing skills, as yet no one had died under her care. The Fourth Shinobi War was also a testimony of her abilities, as nobody had disputed her role in being one of the most proficient medics in the war.

Yet, nothing could have prepared her for this.

Naruto Uzumaki, her most precious and beloved teammate was dying in front of her. He was lying in front of her, unmoving, void of any sign of life. It was impossible for Sakura to believe it, she had never thought of Naruto dying before. Naruto was the epitome of life, never ceasing of moving, always with that carefree grin on his face.

Seeing him so pale and quiet was unnerving for Sakura. He couldn't die, not now, not when his dream of becoming Hokage was so close of becoming true. Sakura wasn't going to let him die, Naruto had done so much for her during all this time that it was now time for her time to do everything she could do for him, for his dream, for _their(*) _dream.

As they flew in the Fourth Hokage's direction and Gaara filled her with the details of what was about to happen, Sakura prepared herself to do anything within her reach to bring Naruto back to life. Multiples times Sakura has felt useless in her life, but not now. Now was time to put everything aside and focus solemnly in her main concert: Naruto's well-being.

Sakura was ready to put her plan in motion, but something astonishing happened, leaving Sakura frozen in her spot.

A pair of blue eyes snapped open. Frightened azure eyes looked everywhere until they rested in another pair of jade eyes.

Sakura sucked in a breath when she saw Naruto's pained expression broke in a weak grin. Blue and green clashed and met. Naruto felt air entering his lungs again.

"_S-Sakura-chan…"_

Sakura grabbed Naruto's face between her hands, still not believing that Naruto was breathing once again, "Naruto! Don't talk you baka! You need to save your energies for later! Don't move-"

"_Y-you have such a ch-charming wide f-forehead it makes me w-want to k-kiss it."_

Sakura felt her own heart stop this time. A memory, hidden in the depths of her mind was trigged with those meaningful words. Instantly, all the barriers she had placed around herself were shattered in a fraction of a second.

A shaking hand wiped her tears away, Sakura didn't know what to say, her heart aching painfully in her chest.

"Why?"

Naruto chuckled weakly, his own eyes glistening with tears, "I-I haven't never s-see you look so b-beautiful before."

Sakura let out a small sob, "Why you did it, N-Naruto?"

Naruto ignored the question and pointed at her forehead with his shaking hand, "C-Can I?"

"_No."_

Naruto looked at her with pained expression, until he saw the gorgeous smile that Sakura was giving him.

"You need to pass through here, first."

Sakura took his trembling fingers with her hand and brought them to her lips, Naruto looked her in pure shock.

Then, Sakura made his second most desired dream come true.

She kissed him.

**A/N: (*) This is for the ambiguous word that Sakura said in Chapter 663, since the translation varies from "in front of you" to "in front of us", I wanted to make Naruto's dream of becoming Hokage also Sakura's dream.**


End file.
